By The Book
By the Book: The Booker 2023 Longlist Book Club
With the Booker Prize 2023 shortlist just around the corner, we took a spin on the quiz helpfully laid out on the official website, and were recommended a pair of books to explore from the longlist: Jonathan Escoffery's If I Survive You, a novel told through short vignettes, exploring a young man's…
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By the Book: The Second Link
With 2023 marking the 60th year since the formation of the Federation of Malaysia, its complex connection with Singapore over the decades feels ever more relevant to examine. The Second Link, an anthology featuring short stories by writers from both countries, engages with and unpacks this entwined…
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By The Book: BookXcess
We continue our spotlight on local bookstores by looking at a crowd favourite this week - BookXcess, popular for their affordable books, unique store concepts, and of course the Big Bad Wolf book fair. We hear from them about why making books as widely accessible as possible is an integral part of …
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By The Book: Readings KL
For the last 18 years, Readings KL has been running (almost) every month - featuring 6 readers each time, and a dedicated community of literary enthusiasts. We speak to its long-time organiser Sharon Bakar, and current host Sumitra Selvaraj, about the joys and challenges of keeping it all running, …
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By The Book: Book Club August 2023 - The Fifth Season
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, the first in the Broken Earth series, created a sensation when it came out in 2015, including getting a Hugo Award. Set on a planet with a single supercontinent called the Stillness, the inhabitants face a "fifth season" of catastrophic climate change - amidst whic…
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By The Book: Sunda Shelves
A newly opened bookshop in Damansara Kim, Sunda Shelves is a cosy space that celebrates nature and conservation, and mixes fiction and non-fiction, as well as new and secondhand books. We discuss the inspiration for the bookshop, how it came to be, and the community it's building. Image Credit:…
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By The Book: How Is AI Changing What We Read?
With AI-generated content and ChatGPT creating anxiety in various industries, we discuss how it might potentially change books - from the potential for books written entirely by AI to what this means for how people in the publishing field are paid for their work. We close off the conversation by di…
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By the Book: Two Book Nerds Talking
If you're wondering what the podcast Two Book Nerds Talking (TBNT) is about, well, it really is all in the title. Born out of a mutual love for reading, the Malaysian literary podcast was started by Diana Yeong and Honey Ahmad, and has since grown to have a loyal following. Meanwhile, we're always …
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By the Book: Book Club July 2023 - A Flutter in the Colony
A family story that's also the tale in some ways of newly independent Bengal, and a pre-independence Malaya, A Flutter in the Colony is the debut novel of Sandeep Ray, whose short story 'Eggs' won the Hanif Kureishi Writing Competition in 2023. We discuss our impressions of the novel, and its contr…
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By the Book: Tan Twan Eng's The House Of Doors
Award-winning Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng's third novel has just arrived on the shelves amidst a lot of anticipation, and it certainly takes on a lofty task: The House of Doors fictionalises, among others, renowned author William Somerset Maugham and revolutionary Chinese statesman Sun Yat Sen, i…
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